Organized basketball play is governed by rulemaking bodies, for example the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). These bodies establish not only rules for the game itself but also dimensional standards for equipment utilized in organized games governed by these respective bodies.
A basketball goal includes a basketball ring, also known as a “rim,” through which the basketball is shot in order to score one or more points, such rim being attached by a mounting assembly along a front surface of a rigid backboard, extending perpendicularly from the front surface thereof and parallel to the basketball court surface, against which backboard the basketball may bounce before passing through the rim for a score. When the basketball is shot first against the backboard in order to bounce into and through the rim, such shot is known as a bank shot.
Geometric relationships between components of an exemplary basketball goal and related equipment are explained for ease of understanding. By way of example, a typical basketball rim has an inside diameter of eighteen inches (18″). The attached rim is equidistant from the sides of the backboard, and is located ten feet above the basketball court, although such height may be adjusted for various age groups. The rim has a center point which is centered relative to vertical side edges of the backboard and is on a line perpendicular to the surface of the backboard. This line may be referred to as the centerline of the front rim. The center point of the rim is positioned fifteen inches (15″) from the front surface of the backboard, and the inside edge of the rim is spaced by the mounting assembly and the width of the rim itself to be six inches (6″) from the front surface of the backboard. A regulation-size basketball configured in accordance with typical equipment rules is generally spherical and has a diameter of about between nine inches (9″), and nine and one-half inches (9.5″), thus the inside diameter of the typical basketball rim is nearly twice the diameter of a regulation size basketball. Because of the relative difference between the inside diameter of the rim and the diameter of the basketball, when a shooter shoots a basketball, be it a direct shot through the rim or a bank shot, the shooter has margin for error, i.e., the inside diameter of the rim target is almost twice the diameter of the basketball which, must pass through it for a score. Thus, depending on the actual diameter of the ball, there is about 4.5″ of margin between the surface ball and the rim when the ball is passing through the rim at the rim center point.
Many basketball goals, regardless of sanctioning body, utilize transparent basketball backboards. Whether the backboard is transparent or not, the basketball backboard includes a painted or adhered square on the backboard behind, perpendicular to the plane of and above, the rim placed there as an aiming aid for the shooter of the basketball. Also, each rim has a mesh net depending therefrom, generally 15 to 18 inches in length, (the rim and net in combination generally being known as a “basket”), the net serving, among other things, to provide the shooter of the basketball a depth perception of rim location as well as to aid the shooter to visualize the center point of the rim which is the ideal aiming point for the direct shot, though there is margin for error.
As mentioned, bank shots are those which are shot against the backboard, to be bounced off of it before passing through the rim for a score. Bank shots are difficult to learn and to execute for some shooters because of the multiple angles of reflection which such shooters must recognize and because, heretofore, bank shot aiming has effectively required shooters to aim at varying aiming points on a backboard, including varying aiming points relative to the square on the backboard, and varying aiming points relative to the rim. With regard to the prior art and as previously described, the aiming point on the backboard varies for each bank shot, as opposed to a single ideal aiming point for a direct shot through the rim, because the bank shot aiming point on the backboard is dependent at least upon the player's location on the basketball court, at the moment of the shot, relative to the basketball goal. Stated otherwise, when shooting a basketball at a backboard for a bank shot, depending on where the shooter is located at the moment of the shot, heretofore the shooter of an intended bank shot would need to determine the appropriate aiming point on the backboard itself for any given bank shot attempted, which aiming point would be different from a multiple of other bank shot aiming points.
Because of the margin for error allowed by the relative size of the rim to the basketball, there can be some margin for error in the bank shot aiming point, and the close-in or “inside” bank shot, that is when the shooter is within a few feet of the basket, is therefore easier to execute than an outside bank shot (that is, when the shooter is more than a few feet from the basket). Nevertheless, when using the backboard as the general target for a bank shot, there are numerous and varying aiming points for a shooter to aim at when shooting a bank shot, all of which are dependent on the shooter's position. As a result, this bank shot aiming determination can be extremely difficult at game speed. Many basketball shooters therefore have come to prefer the direct basketball shot, particularly when shooting an outside shot, because, as compared to taking the bank shot, the shooter of the direct shot needs only to aim at the center point of the rim, which aiming point is always independent of the shooter's location or motion at the time of the shot. Everywhere the shooter of the direct shot goes on the basketball court, there remains only one ideal target for the shot, i.e., the center of the rim.
Thus, generally the known art for aiming a basketball bank shot heretofore required that a shooter learn to aim at varying points on a basketball backboard depending on, among other things, the shooter's location on the basketball court. It would be desirable to overcome these and other difficulties for effectively aiming a basketball bank shot by providing an apparatus and method for a shooter shooting a basketball bank shot to be able to aim at a single target, independent of the shooter's location at the moment of the shot which, when accurately utilized, would result in the increased likelihood of the basketball bank shot deflecting off of the backboard and passing through the rim for a score.